So, I made a big decision last week, which was to go half-time at my job. There were a lot of reasons for doing it--from the fact that my immune system seems to be shot, and I could do with some time to recoup, to the fact that my PhD thesis hasn't moved forward since last July, to the simplest fact of all, which is that Patrick & I can afford for me to do it right now, so why not? -- but the basic end result is that, for the next few months while I'm resting, recuperating, etc., I get to be a half-time writer, for the first time ever. It's official as of today.

And it started out on the best possible note this morning, with my first story sale to a British magazine! My short (quasi-) science fiction story "Behind the Rules" (my final, snarky & long-overdue reaction, after years & years of furious simmering, to Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider's The Rules, which reduced me to mute outrage when it first appeared) will be published in Forgotten Worlds this July. Hurray! It was a really, really good way to start this morning.

Since I've been living in England for the past four years, this means an awful lot to me symbolically.

I was on my way out the door to work when I got the news this morning. But there will be much celebration (and possibly freshly-baked banana muffins) now that I'm back!

It feels like a very good beginning.